Countries closing on climage change deal at Lima, maybe

Australia is among nearly 200 countries apparently closing on a deal to enable possible significant agreement in Paris next year to make a global assault on climate change.

The New York Times reports that this potentially historic deal that would for the first time commit every nation in the world to cutting its planet-warming fossil fuel emissions — but would still not be enough to stop the early impacts of global warming.

“It’s a breakthrough, because it gives meaning to the idea that every country will make cuts,” said Yvo de Boer, the former executive secretary of the United Nations Convention on Climate Change.

“But the great hopes for the process are also gone,” he added. “Many people are resigned,” he said, to the likelihood that even a historic new deal would not reduce greenhouse gas levels enough to keep the planet’s atmospheric temperature from rising 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit,” he said.

This is what The Times had to say about what is happening in Lima: “With Compromises, a Global Accord to Fight Climate ChangeIs in Sight".